


who are you (where did they go?)

by m3owww



Series: maribat [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Heavy Angst, You Have Been Warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25973143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3owww/pseuds/m3owww
Summary: Based onthis postby @theatreandcomicfreak on tumblr.When Marinette Dupain-Cheng wakes up on the day of her tenth birthday, she immediately runs for the nearest mirror.Starting when they turn ten years old, everyone will see their soulmate in mirrors, puddles, or any reflective surface. The soulmate (or soulmates) could be either romantic or platonic, but you always saw your soulmate in the mirror, unless they were dead. Then you only saw yourself.Marinette Dupain-Cheng was no exception to the ways of the world.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Series: maribat [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842979
Comments: 14
Kudos: 468





	who are you (where did they go?)

**Author's Note:**

> I am not sorry.
> 
> beta read by [pudgeee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pudgeee/pseuds/pudgeee).

When Marinette Dupain-Cheng wakes up on the day of her tenth birthday, she immediately runs for the nearest mirror.

Starting when they turn ten years old, everyone will see their soulmate in mirrors, puddles, or any reflective surface. The soulmate (or soulmates) could be either romantic or platonic, but you always saw your soulmate in the mirror, unless they were dead. Then you only saw yourself.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was no exception to the ways of the world.

The boy in the mirror was thin, too thin. He had striking blue eyes and dark hair that would have been even more beautiful, had it been properly washed. A handful of freckles were scattered across his face, along with some dust and dirt. His face was relaxed, mouth slightly open. Asleep.

Marinette immediately promises herself that this boy is to be protected at all costs. She doesn’t think she could stand seeing him in pain.

* * *

When Jason Peter Todd wakes up on his tenth birthday, he sees a pretty girl instead of his own face, marred by the jagged edges of the broken window in a run-down apartment in Crime Alley.

She is laughing, sky blue eyes shining with joy and mirth. Her dark blue hair is pulled up into cute pigtails, and Jason observes that she looks… free. Lighter, happier, in ways that he isn’t.

But even as he watches, he feels some of her joy seeping into him, and feels some of the weight on his shoulders lift a little. 

The girl in the broken window is obviously well-fed and well-cared for, which makes him smile.

It had only been a minute since he first saw her, but Jason knows that he would do absolutely anything if it meant that she continued to smile. He knows that if anything happened to her, he would let the world burn.

* * *

When Marinette is twelve years old, she notices that the boy’s cheeks are filling out, that there is no grime on him that she can see, and that he is starting to smile more.

A few months later, she glances into a mirror when she wakes up for school and sees a boy in a costume that resembles a traffic light, grinning as he punches a full-grown man in the face.

A bit of research tells her that he is most likely Robin, a child sidekick to the mysterious Batman, a crime-fighter and Justice League member based in Gotham City.

America. Her soulmate is in America, and he is a hero.

Marinette is glad he is being fed properly, and that he seems happy. 

She only hopes that his activities as Robin do not get him severely injured. Robin’s smile and laughter are precious to her. They cheer her up when Chloé says something particularly nasty. Marinette doesn’t want to ever see them wiped off his face.

* * *

When Jason is thirteen years old, Paris gains two heroes.

Batman starts a file on Ladybug and Chat Noir, the two people, obviously children to the trained eye, who fight garish monsters that are actually humans transformed by an emotional terrorist with the aid of their own negative emotions.

Not long after, Jason sees a familiar pigtailed girl looking back at him in the mirror, except this girl is wearing a red mask with five black spots and a similar magical suit, and just threw a yoyo into a… thing’s face.

Paris. She’s in Paris, and she’s also a hero.

Jason would have flown to Paris right away to search, if it wasn’t for one small thing- the Justice League and its affiliates were no longer allowed in Paris, as heroes or civilians. They were too strong to risk being akumatized.

Since his soulmate is the one who established that rule, he is content to wait. She knows what she is doing. Jason will find her, when it is over. 

He hopes that she will stay safe, and that the magical suit will protect her when he cannot.

* * *

When Marinette is thirteen years old, she witnesses her classmate turn into a stone monster, finds a pair of magical earrings on her desk, and becomes a hero herself. 

Ladybug and her partner Chat Noir are the new heroes of Paris, showing up to battle whatever akumas are released and then disappearing.

Chat Noir is not a terrible partner, not anywhere close. But he is very obvious in his romantic pursuit of her, in his hinting that they are soulmates, but she knows differently.

Her soulmate is a blue-eyed, dark-haired boy in Gotham, with a traffic light costume (that finally gained pants) and a beautiful smile that never fails to put one on her face too.

He is not blond, nor is he in Paris.

Marinette is content to wait until she is older to find him. She cannot leave Paris while Hawkmoth is at large, and he cannot enter because of his alter ego as Robin. 

She hopes that the layers of kevlar in his colorful costume will protect him when she isn’t there to. She hopes that it will be enough.

* * *

When Jason is fourteen years old, he is captured by the Joker.

As the crowbar makes contact with his body, he ignores the pain, ignores the crazed laughter of the clown, ignores the sickening sounds the metal makes when it hits him, and apologizes to the girl in the mirror.

He apologizes because he has given up hope that someone will save him. He apologizes because he knows that this is the end, that he will not live to see the next morning.

He apologizes because he will not live to see her victory over Hawkmoth, because he will not live to see her smile again or to meet her in person.

The timer ticks down, the clown long gone, his cackles still echoing in his head.

Jason leans his head against the locked door, catching sight of a crying girl in the reflection of his own blood, and apologizes one last time as his world goes up in flames before everything turns black.

_ I’m sorry I never even knew your name. _

* * *

When Marinette is fourteen years old, she is washing her hands in a school bathroom when she glances at the mirror and sees a boy with a broken domino mask, colorful costume torn and soaked with red.

He’s lying in a growing pool of red, and as she watches, a metal bar comes down on his chest, and he coughs up blood, face screwing up in pain.

She feels helpless, not wanting to watch him in pain, but also unable to look away, for fear that he won’t be there when she looks again. 

Her soulmate is far away, too far, and there is nothing she can do but watch as the bar comes down again and again, until the blows stop and he struggles to his feet, leaving a trail of blood behind him as he stumbles towards what must be an exit.

But the door seems to be locked, because Marinette sees all the hope leave his gorgeous blue eyes as he slumps against the metal, seemingly locking eyes with her for a moment, and then everything bursts into flame before the image is gone.

Her own reflection, midnight hair and eyes a different shade of blue, filled with tears, stares back at her for the first time in four years.

_ She never even learned his name. _

* * *

Time goes on. The Earth continues orbiting, but missing the smile of a nameless boy in a colorful costume and the smile of a once sparkly-eyed girl who mourned a boy she never met.

She asks her parents to remove all the mirrors in her room. Her windows get permanent curtains, her skylight is covered with fabric. She avoids looking at the bakery windows on her way to school, puddles on the sidewalk, and any reflective surface at all.

Some people forget. Marinette does not.

A new student enters her life- a liar, by the name of Lila Rossi. She, along with others who follow her example once Lila succeeds at turning the class against her, conveniently ‘forget’ that her soulmate is dead.

After the fourth akumatization attempt, she teaches herself not to feel any emotion. It is better this way. The pain, the grief of losing him is replaced by emptiness.

(But there is always a tiny part of her, deep down, that yearns for the boy, with his bright blue eyes and brighter smile.)

Life moves on. Marinette stays put.

To most people, it would seem like she had moved on. Ladybug continued to defeat akumas whenever they appeared, though the most observant noted she was more snappish with her partner and left right after battles. 

Chat Noir continued to get less and less helpful and more and more insistent that they were soulmates, until one day, she snapped.

“You are not my soulmate, because my soulmate is dead. I watched him die.”

He stops pestering her after that. She feels nothing but a tiny twinge of sadness when she thinks of Robin.

Two years pass, and she still feels nothing. Gabriel Agreste is arrested. She becomes the new Guardian. Adrien Agreste’s miraculous is taken back, now that the threat is gone.

The akumas are no longer a threat, with the butterfly brooch sitting safely in the jewelry box hidden in her room, and yet she still refuses to feel, because it hurts to remember how he smiled, how the few times she saw him laughing made her happy for weeks, how his ocean blue eyes were so full of  _ life and freedom and hope _ \- 

Until he realized the door was locked and there was no escape and everything faded from his eyes as he leaned back and just accepted that he was going to die. 

But he can’t be dead, because she hasn’t gotten a chance to meet him yet. She hasn’t gotten a chance to tell him how he meant the world to her and how she would do anything to see him smile and how he inspired her to continue being a hero, which is why he can’t be dead.

She wants to forget. She tries to forget, but no matter how hard she tries, she remembers, and it hurts like nothing else ever has.

* * *

When Jason wakes up in a pool of sickly green water, his first thought is of her. He doesn’t remember Bruce until maybe the fourth or fifth thought, and he is not ashamed to admit it. Batman did let him die, after all.

The first time he sees her after waking up (being resurrected), it is in another window, this time whole (unlike his mind). He wonders what happened to her, in the two years he was gone.

Her blue eyes, once so bright, had lost all their spark, and were dull, emotionless. She walks down a hallway, unflinching, unfeeling, even as a redhead with glasses shoves her onto the ground, scattering her books and papers. She picks them up and continues on her way without showing a single ounce of emotion.

Jason doesn’t know who this shadow of a girl is, or how she became this way. He remembers a joyful girl with a smile like the sun that brightened the world of those around her. He remembers a heroine, in bright polka dots, always there to save her city from disaster, always ready to take the lead and always ready to stand up to do what’s right.

He sees the hollow shell of what once was, not even defending herself as her classmates torment her, and wonders if it’s his fault that she became this way, if she stopped feeling because of him. If it is not too late, if she can be saved.

* * *

It all happens because Marinette trips on a rainy day.

She lands face first in a puddle, and her classmates (not her friends, will never be her friends again) have a good laugh before leaving. She picks herself up off the ground, brushing wet hair out of her eyes, and freezes when she sees the reflection in the puddle.

Because the reflection isn’t hers. 

It’s a young man, familiar yet a stranger, with a strong jaw and a smatter of freckles across his nose and cheekbones. His eyes, once a clear ocean blue, were now clouded with a sickly green, and his hair, once solid black, now has a streak of white that makes him look so, so dangerous.

He looks just like the boy she lost, and at the same time, he is so different. 

So much angrier.

So much scarier.

She watches, as he aims a gun at a bound and gagged man, and buries a bullet in the man’s forehead with hard eyes and no remorse.

The boy she lost was Robin. A hero, even if the law defined him as a vigilante. He defended people. He protected people. He saved people’s lives.

This man, with the white streak in his hair and eyes clouded green, is a monster. He doesn’t save lives, he ends them.

Marinette bows her head as the rain falls around her, and wonders if the boy she held so close to her heart is even alive at all in the monster she just witnessed. If he can be saved.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](https://m3owww.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
